
Class__ TS \ b33 
Book ^IH 



CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN 

RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

AND HERMAN GRIMM 

EDITED BY 

FREDERICK WILLIAM HOLLS 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

1903 



¥ >'^'"3 



COERESPONDENCE BETWEEN 
RALPH WALDO "eMERSON 



AND HERMAN GRIMM 



EDITED BY 



FREDERICK WILLIAM HOLLS 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

1903 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies R«ceived 

WAY 6 1903 

V^opyright Entry 

cdss CU XXcNo. 

COPY B. 



TSu 



3J 



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/ 



Reprinted — with the exception of 
the original German letters — from 
the " Atlantic Monthly y'' Aprils 1903 



COFTBIOHT, 1903, 

By Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

All rights reserved 

Published May, 1903 



C € * 
• « « « * « 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 1 

Letters : 

I. Grimm to Emerson : April 5, 1856 . 15 
II. Emerson to Grimm : June 29, 1858 . 21 

III. Emerson to Gisela von Arnim : June 

29, 1858 25 

IV. Emerson to Grimm : July 9, 1859 . 29 
V. Emerson to Gisela von Arnim : July 

10, 1859 37 

VI. Grimm to Emerson: October 25, 

1860 45 

VII. Emerson to Grimm : June 27, 1861 . 55 
VIII. Emerson to Grimm: April 14, 1867 65 
IX. Grimm to Emerson : October 19, 

1867 69 

X. Emerson to Grimm : April 17, 1868 . 79 
XI. Emerson to Grimm: January 5, 

1871 83 

XII. Emerson to Grimm : December 18, 

1871 .87 



INTRODUCTION 



EMERSON-GKIMiM 



INTRODUCTION 

Among German prose writers and 
critics, during the nineteenth century, 
the name of Herman Grimm must al- 
ways be found in the foremost rank. 
Known outside of Germany best by very 
faulty translations of his lives of Michel- 
angelo and Raphael, both of which are, 
however, masterpieces of biography as 
well as of art criticism, his fame in his 
own Fatherland rests even more secure- 
ly upon the six volumes of his essays, his 
exquisite paraphrase of the Iliad, and 
his lectures on the life of Goethe, deliv- 
ered at the University of Berlin. As a 
most competent judge. Professor Kuno 
Francke, has well said,^ "He is philoso- 
pher, art critic, and literary historian 
in one, — an interpreter of the spiritual 
ideals of mankind, whatever form they 
may have assumed or to whatever age 

^ la Glimpses of Modern German Culture, 
page 99. 

3 



EMERSON-GEIMM 

they may belong." Again, ^ "He has 
the magic gift of making all things seem 
animate. By a word, by a mere inter- 
jection, he transports his reader to the 
remotest times and lands ; the strangest 
sights he makes familiar ; he gives us a 
sense of being at home with the mighty 
shades of history." 

The elegance, vigor, and sprightli- 
ness of his style, as well as the thorough- 
ness of his knowledge, and his almost 
unerring insight and critical judgment, 
have combined, even now, within two 
years of his death, to give him an un- 
questioned place among the classics of 
the German language. 

The facts about his life are few and 
simple. He was born January 6, 1828, 
as the son of Wilhelm Grimm, the 
younger of the distinguished brothers 
Grimm, whose fairy tales are household 
words the world over. After studying 
law, he devoted himself to literature, 
married Gisela von Arnim, daughter of 

1 Page 111. 
4 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

Goethe's Bettina, and for years led the 
life of an independent scholar, until 
he was appointed, in 1872, Professor of 
the History of Art at the University 
of Berlin. He resigned this position in 
1893, and thereafter lived quietly in 
the fourth story apartment on the Mat- 
thaikirchstrasse in Berlin, which for 
many years was a famous meeting place 
of the choicest spirits who resided in or 
visited the German capital. 

It was in this modest but extremely 
tasteful home that the writer was priv- 
ileged to make the acquaintance of Her- 
man Grimm, and to listen frequently to 
his charming conversation, full of rem- 
iniscence and Lehensweisheit, during the 
last years of his life; and it was on 
Thursday, June 13, 1901, — just three 
days before his entirely unexpected 
death, — that the conversation turned 
once again upon that feature of Grimm's 
career which makes him so peculiarly 
interesting to Americans, namely, his 
part in the introduction and interpreta- 
5 



EMERSON-GKIMM 

tion of Ralph Waldo Emerson to the 
German people. 

In his essay on Emerson written in 
1861, and included in his first series of 
fifteen essays,^ Grimm relates how he 
first became acquainted with Emerson's 
works as follows : — 

"At the house of an American friend, 
some years ago I found Part One of the 
Essays of Emerson, accidentally lying 
on the table. I looked into the book 
and read a page, and was really aston- 
ished not to have understood anything, 
although I felt considerable confidence 
in my knowledge of English. I asked 
about the author. I was told that he 
was the first writer of America, — very 
clever (geistreich), but sometimes some- 
what crazy, and that quite frequently 
he could not even explain his own sen- 
tences. Moreover, that no one was so 
highly regarded as a character and as 
a prose writer. In brief, the opinion 
was so strong that I looked into the vol- 

1 Funfzehn Essays, Erste Folge, page 428. 
6 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

tune again. Some sentences impressed 
me as being so suggestive and enlight- 
ening that I felt an impulse to take the 
book along, and to examine it more care- 
fully at home. I find that it is a great 
thing if a book tempts us to such a de- 
gree that we resolve, without compul- 
sion, to look into it, — especially to- 
day, when it is necessary, by reason of 
a certain instinct of self-preservation, 
to remain upon the defensive to the ut- 
termost against both men and books, if 
we are to preserve our time, our mood 
(Stimmung), and our own thoughts. I 
took Webster's Dictionary and began to 
read. The build of the sentences seemed 
to me very unusual; soon I discovered 
the secret. There were real thoughts; 
there was a real language, — a true 
man whom I had before me, — not a — 
I need not enlarge upon the opposite, 
— I bought the book. Since then I 
have never ceased to read in Emerson's 
Works, and every time that I take them 
down anew, it seems to me that I am 
7 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

reading them for the first time. . . . 
I read the essay entitled Nature, and as 
I continued, sentence after sentence, I 
seemed to feel that I had met the sim- 
plest and truest man, and that I was 
listening to him as he was speaking to 
me. 

"I did not ask whether he was clever 
(geistreich), whether he had an object; 
whether he wanted to prove this or that 
thought by his sentences. I read one 
page after another. It is possible that 
it was all confusion, but it did not seem 
so to me. I followed his thoughts, word 
for word, — everything seemed to me 
to be old and well known, as if I had 
thought or foreboded it a thousand 
times, and everything was new as if I 
was learning it for the first time. 
Whenever I had had the book in my 
hands for a time, my sense of personal 
independence revolted spontaneously. 
It did not seem possible to me that I 
had given myself captive in such a man- 
ner. It seemed to me that I was de- 
8 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

ceived and betrayed. I said to myself, 
this man must be a man like all others, 
must have their faults and doubtful vir- 
tues, is probably vain, open to flattery, 
and moody, — but when I read his sen- 
tences again, the magic breeze seemed 
to touch my heart anew ; the old worked- 
out machinery (Gefriebe) of the world 
seemed to be freshened up, as though I 
had never felt such pure air. I recent- 
ly heard from an American who had 
attended Emerson's lectures, that there 
was nothing more impressive than to 
hear this man talk. I believe it. No- 
thing surpasses the voice of a man who 
expresses from the depths of his soul 
that which he considers to be true. . . . 
It is necessary to live in the great world 
in order to appreciate and understand 
great characters. Emerson is connected 
with the greatest men of his country, 
— a country which has grand politics, 
whereas we had none up to this day. 
Thus, Goethe was connected in his time 
with the choicest spirits of the nation, 
9 



EMEKSON-GRIMM 

— the men who had harmoniously lifted 
themselves to such a height that the en- 
tire people recognized their supremacy. 
We need not only a light to illuminate 
a great circle as a lighthouse, but also 
a tower from the top of which the light 
itself becomes properly visible." 

Of the only occasion when he met 
Emerson, Grimm writes as follows : ^ — 

"In the spring of 1873, I saw him 
in Florence. A tall spare figure, with 
that innocent smile on his lips which be- 
longs to children and to men of the 
highest rank. His daughter Ellen, who 
looked out for him, accompanied him. 
Highest culture elevates man above the 
mere national, and renders him per- 
fectly simple. Emerson had unassum- 
ing dignity of manner, — I seemed to 
have known him from my youth." 

These facts and views were re-told and 
elaborated by Grimm in the most inter- 
esting manner. In order to illustrate 

^ Funfzehn Essays, Dritte Folge, p. xxii. 
See also Cabot's Life of Emerson^ ii. p. 662. 
10 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

his story he showed the writer nearly- 
all of Emerson's works in their first 
editions, as sent to him by the author, 
every one with a cordial inscription. 
He then went on to say, almost care- 
lessly: "I had a few extremely inter- 
esting letters from Emerson, and some 
years ago, when I was looking through 
my old papers, I collected them and 
presented them to the Goethe-Schiller 
Archives in Weimar where they now 
are. I think however that they ought 
to be published, and I wish you would 
do me the favor of taking copies of them, 
and of publishing them in America." 
It is needless to say that this unexpect- 
ed invitation was gladly accepted on the 
spot, but it was suggested that Grimm's 
own letters ought to be included in such 
a publication, not only for the pur- 
pose of throwing light on what Emer- 
son might have written, but also for 
their own intrinsic worth. To this Mr. 
Grimm assented, and immediately sat 
down to write out the necessary cre- 
11 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

dentials for both Weimar and Con- 
cord, and we parted with the promise 
on the part of the guest to see him the 
next week after returning from Wei- 
mar. The following Monday morning 
the writer called upon Geheimrath Dr. 
Suphan in the beautiful Goethe-Schil- 
ler Building at Weimar, and handed 
him the letter of Herman Grimm, of 
whom he was an intimate friend. As he 
saw the handwriting his face changed 
color, and he silently pointed to a 
newspaper with a dispatch announcing 
briefly that Herman Grimm had been 
found dead in his bed on the morning 
of the day before, — Sunday, June 16, 
1901. 

The letters of Emerson were soon 
found, and permission to have them 
copied was readily given. Among them 
were found two letters to Gisela von 
Arnim, afterwards the wife of Her- 
man Grimm, which are also included in 
this collection. Likewise Dr. Edward 
Waldo Emerson has very courteously 
12 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

searched the papers of his father, with 
the result of finding the four letters 
from Herman Grimm which are here 
translated. 

Grimm's interest in America was 
great, even apart from his admiration 
for Emerson. He was a particular 
friend of the most distinguished min- 
isters and ambassadors of the United 
States at Berlin, notably George Ban- 
croft and Andrew D. White. He took 
great interest in the educational and in- 
tellectual development of this country, 
and he was especially impressed, as well 
as pleased, by the American apprecia- 
tion of Goethe, — a feeling which he 
felt to be greater by far in this country 
than among any other English-speaking 
people. He was a vice president of the 
Germanic Museum Association of Har- 
vard University, and took great pride 
and interest in its work. 

On the occasion referred to above he 
presented to the writer a copy of his 
lectures on Goethe, with an inscription 
13 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

which is doubtless the last word he ever 
wrote about America as follows : — 

Die Dichtungen und Gedanhen Goe- 
thes haben von Deutschland nach Amer- 
ica eine feste Britcke uher den Ocean 
geschlagen. 

[The poetry and thoughts of Goethe 
have constructed a firm bridge across 
the ocean from Germany to America.] 
Herman Grimm. 

Surely all friends and admirers of 
Ralph Waldo Emerson may congratu- 
late themselves that he found such a 
fitting interpreter to a friendly and in- 
tellectually kindred people. 




14 



GRIMM TO EMERSON 



EMEKSON-GRIMM 

I. GRIMM TO EMERSON. 

Berlin, April 5, 1856. 

Verehrter Herr, — Die Abreise 
Mr. Al. Thayer's giebt mir die Gele- 
genheit einige Worte an Sie richten zu 
diirfen. Vor einem Jahre lernte ich 
Ihre Schrif ten kennen, welche seit die- 
ser Zeit immer wieder mit neuer Be- 
wunderung von mir gelesen werden. 
Uberall glaube ich meine eigenen, ge- 
heimsten Gedanken wieder zu finden, 
die Worte sogar, in denen ich sie am 
liebsten ausgedriickt haben wtirde . Von 
alien Schrif tst ell ern unser Tage schei- 
nen Sie mir den Genius der Zeit am Tief- 
sten zu verstehen, und unsere Zukunft 
am deutlichsten zu fuhlen. Es macht 
mich glUcklich Ihnen dies sagen zu kon- 
nen. 

Ich erlaube mir, diesem Brief e einige 
meiner Aufsatze und Gedichte beizule- 
gen. Ich thue es nicht, um von Ihnen 
einer Dank dafur zu empfangen, — ja, 
ich denke nicht einmal daran, dass Sie 
sie lesen werden. Es ist mir aber eine 
grosse Genugthuung dennoch sie Ihnen 
16 



EMEKSON-GRIMM 

I. GRIMM TO EMERSON. 

Berlin, April 5, 1856. 
Honored Sir, — The departure of 
Mr. Alexander Thayer gives me the 
opportunity of addressing a few words 
to you. A year ago I first became ac- 
quainted with your writings, which since 
that time have been read by me repeat- 
edly, with ever recurring admiration. 
Everywhere I seem to find my own 
secret thoughts, — even the words in 
which I would prefer to have expressed 
them. Of all the writers of our day 
you seem to me to understand the gen- 
ius of the time most profoundly, to 
anticipate our future most clearly. It 
makes me happy to be permitted to say 
this to you. 

I have permitted myself to enclose 
with this letter some of my essays and 
poems. I do it, not in order to receive 
thanks from you, — indeed, I do not 
even think of your reading them, but it 
is, nevertheless, a great satisfaction to 

17 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

zu tibersenden, es macht mich der Ge- 
danke stolz, dass Sie in Ihr Haus und 
Ihre Hande kommen. 

In walirer Hochachtung und Vereh- 
rung der Ihrige, 

Herman Grimm. 



18 



EMEKSON-GRIMM 

me to send them to you. The thought 
makes me proud that they will come 
into your house and into your hands. 
With true veneration and esteem, 
Yours, Herman Grimm. 



19 



II 

EMERSON TO GRIMM 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

II. EMERSON TO GRIMM. 

Concord, Massachusetts, 29 June, 1858. 

Dear Sir, — When Mr. Thayer long 
since brought me your letter, with Ar- 
min and Demetrius and the pieces con- 
tributed by you to the Morgenblatt, I 
should have at once expressed to you 
the surprise and pleasure I felt, — but 
that Mr. Thayer assured me that he 
should soon return to Germany, and 
would carry my letters of acknowledg- 
ment. And ever since, from time to 
time, I have heard again that he was 
on the point of going. This fact is the 
only palliating circumstance I can offer 
on this tardiest reply to your goodness. 
The delay has also made the few criti- 
cal words I once thought of writing 
down impertinent, and I can only now 
recall how happy I was in the proffered 
sympathy of a scholar bearing your hon- 
ored name, and well proved by what I 
read worthy to bear it. 

It was an easy work of love to read 

the dramas, the poems, and the essays 

in the Morgenblatt. I found special 

interest, perhaps somewhat accidental, 
23 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

/ in the Demetrius. For the translated 

Essay on Shakespeare, — I am proud 
to be introduced to Berlin under condi- 
tions of so good omen, and not a little 
proud to read myself in German at all. 
It is cheering to know that our fellow 
students, lovers of the same muses, work 
in one will, though so widely sundered, 
— and the more, because facilitated in- 
tercourse suggests to each the hope of 
seeing the other. I am grown to the 
stationary age ; but who knows but the 
westward tendency, which seems to be 
impressed on the whole Teutonic family, 
will one day bring you to us ! As Mr. 
Thayer generously offers me room in his 
trunk, I gladly use the opportunity to 
send you a copy of all my books in the 
corrected edition. By and by, I hope to 
send you a chapter or two of more per- 
manent interest. 

With all kind and grateful regards, 
R. W. Emerson. 

HERittAN Grimm, Esq. 
Kindness of A. W. Thayer, Esq. 



m 



EMERSON TO THE FRAULEIN GISELA 

VON ARNIM, AFTERWARDS THE 

WIFE OF HERMAN GRIMM 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

in. BMEBSON TO THE FRiiULEIN GISELA VON 
ARNIM, AFTERWARDS THE WISE OF HER- 
MAN GRIMM. 

Concord, Massachusetts, 29 June, 1858. 
I have received — it is already some 
months since — the welcome gift of 
your Dramatic Works in two volumes. 
I cannot tell you how pleasant was to 
me this token from one of your name, 
and, since I have hecome acquainted 
with your thoughts, this token from 
yourself. I had been now for fifteen 
years an admirer of your mother's gen- 
ius. All her books, I believe, are on 
my shelves, and I had eagerly learned 
what now and then a rare traveller could 
tell me of her happy personal and fam- 
ily relations. But no traveller could tell 
me so much good as this little pair of 
books you send me has told, — of no- 
blest culture still found in her house, 
and that best kind of genius which 
springs from inspirations of the heart. 
I am charmed with the Trost in Thranen 
above all; for the choice of subject 
indicates high sympathies, and it is 
almost a test by which the finest people 
27 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

I have ever known might be selected, — 
their interest in Michelangelo and his 
friends, Vittoria Colonna in chief, so 
that I dare to believe myself already 
acquainted with you, and very heartily 
your friend. You shall not let your 
muse sleep, but continue to draw pic- 
tures provoking a legitimate interest, 
by showing a heart of more resources 
than any other. 

Lest I should make quite no return 
for your goodness, I have confided to 
Mr. Thayer for you a few numbers of 
our Boston Magazine, in which I some- 
times write a chapter. 

May I ask of you the favor to offer 
my respects to your mother, the Frau 
von Arnim, and to thank her in my 
name for many happy hours she has for- 
merly given to friends of mine and to 
me, through her writings. With re- 
newed thanks for your goodness, I am, 
with the best hope, and with great re- 
spect, Your friend, 

R. W. Emerson. 

To the Fraiilein Gisela von Arnim, 

Berlin. 
Kindness of A. W. Thayer, Esq. 
28 



IV 

EMERSON TO GRIMM 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

rV. EMERSON TO GRIMM. 

Concord, Massachusetts, 9 July, 1859. 

My dear Sir, — I have been too 
much and too long your debtor. But 
I will not tire you with excuses which 
fate made, and which words could not 
help or adorn. It is much that I have 
felt that I was dealing with one who 
could well afford me as much time as I 
wanted. Now I have been reading over 
your letter, and your Morgenblatt, and 
your Essays, and am warmed into such 
thankful kindness, that the time more 
or less seems not important. I have 
read the first Canto of the Cimbri and 
Teutons, which gives high assurances of 
power. The only question I ask, and, 
in this case, with impatience, is, "How 
many years does my poet count ? " For, 
if you are still young, you will carry it 
very far, — with such aplomb, such re- 
serves, and such mastery of your means. 
But, in our distracting times, the writ- 
ers falling abroad with too much infor- 
mation amassed upon them, it needs the 
irresistible drive-wheel of early man- 
hood to overcome the forces of disper- 
31 



EMERSON-GIRIMM 

sion. But I will allow you more years 
than you have, as I choose to ascribe to 
you the rare felicity of carrying into 
maturity the heat of youth, and so I 
augur " a new morn risen on mid noon " 
to your people. I have just been 
reading, with great content, the paper 
on Michelangelo in the Essays. The 
views taken are all wise and generous ; 
and to me also the contribution from 
Eaczynsky is new and most welcome. 

But I give you fair warning that, as 
I alone in America, at this day possess 
this book of yours, I intend to use my 
advantage. I advise you to watch me 
narrowly. I think I shall reproduce 
you in lectures, poems, essays, — what- 
ever I may in these months be called to 
write. I have already been quoting you 
a good many times, within a few days, 
and it was plain, nobody knew where I 
became so suddenly learned and discern- 
ing. 

I like well what you say, that, when 
you are at liberty, you will come and 
see us. After the fine compliments you 
pay me, I might well think twice of 
allowing you to undeceive yourself. I 
32 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

shall pay you the higher compliment of 
entire trust. I shall not run away. 
You and I shall not fear to meet, or to 
be silent, or to prize each other's love 
of letters less, because we can be mod- 
est nobodies at home. Come and see 
our quiet river, and its skiffs, our woods 
and meadows, in this little town, whose 
chief contribution to the public good is, 
that every farmer sends milk and wood 
to Boston. 

A few friends I have here, who are 
well worth knowing, if you will stay 
long enough to let the affinities play. 
I have found that this personality is 
the daintiest ware with which we deal, 
and almost no ability is any guarantee 
of sympathy, unless fortune also aid 
in the lack of counterparts. I have a 
hope as of earliest youth, since your 
friend Gisela von Arnim has written me 
such welcome sketches of her friends, 
and taught me to thank and prize them 
as mine also. Another person sent me 
the Morgenblatt containing your friend- 
liest critique on Emerson. I must say, 
in all frankness, that your words about 
me seem strangely overcharged. That 
33 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

such freedom of thought as I use should 
impress or shock an Englishman, or a 
churchman in America, is to be ex- 
pected. But this same freedom I as- 
cribe habitually to you Germans. It 
belongs to Goethe, Schiller, and Nova- 
lis, throughout, and I impute it to your 
writers whom I do not know: and I 
know not what whim of rhetoric I may 
have to thank, that leads you to over- 
prize my pages. Well, I suppose I 
must wish your illusions will last, until 
I can justify them by some real per- 
forming. 

I was sad to read, in the Journal you 
sent me, the death of one of those who 
should never die, — and untimely for 
me, who was just coming into relations 
with her nearest friends, which, could 
they have been earlier, would have 
strangely mixed dreams and realities. 

I pray you to persevere, in spite of 
my silences and shortcomings, in send- 
ing me, now and then, a leaf written 
or printed. I hope I shall not be al- 
ways ungrateful. My little book, long 
delayed, which I call Conduct of Life, 

I mean to send you in the autumn, and 
34 



EMERSON-GEIMM 

an enlarged, and, I hope, enriched edi- 
tion of Poems. Yet it is not books, but 
sense and sympathy, which I wish to 
offer you. 

Tours affectionately, 
R. W. Emerson. 
Herman Grimm. 



35 



EMERSON TO GIBELA VON ARNIM 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

V. EMERSON TO GISELA VON ARNIM. 

Concord, Massachusetts, 10 July, 1859. 

My dear Friend, — You must have 
long ago believed that your letter had 
failed to reach me — no ; there is more 
Providence in the world than that so 
much and so precious good will can miss 
of its mark. Thanks for the frankness 
and bravery, as well as the wisdom, of 
these pages. They call me out, and are 
such a surprise, that I shrink a little 
before so much sincerity. In reading 
your letter, I felt as when I read rarely 
a good novel, rebuked that I do not use 
in my life these delicious relations ; or 
that I accept anything inferior and 
ugly. I owe you, therefore, a high 
debt, as exiles ever do to those who 
speak their native language, and think, 
for a time, we will never speak the 
speech of the streets again. But you 
must repeat and continue your good 
deed, to keep me in my good resolutions. 

There is much to think of, much to 
speak of, in your letter, and, though 
you have been frank, you wake more 
curiosity than you satisfy. 
39 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

I am piqued by your account of your 
habits of thought, and, when I try to 
translate yours into mine, I am not sure 
they correspond. To what you say of 
your habits of creation, I listen warily ; 
but perhaps I do not know the like. 
You would rather know something of 
your friend's life than what thought 
occupies him. I hope it is no language 
of despair, grown out of the failures of 
our fellows. One hears so much called 
" thought " which is not thought, but 
only the memories of a torpid mind, 
that we say. Tell us rather of your corn- 
barn or your shoestring. But I confide, 
that, if my friend could give me his 
thought, it is the only gift, and carries 
all others with it. No age, no expe- 
rience makes the hunger less. I have 
the same craving, and the same worship 
for a new thought as when my first in- 
tellectual friendships gave wings to my 
head and feet, and new heavens and 
earth. Yet I could well believe, as I 
read Queen Ingeborg, that you do not 
like ghosts, but real men and women. 
And that you think with such forms, 
and not with counters. That you make 
40 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

so much of your friends is also the 
habit of a noble soul; and, since life 
admits of friendship, why should we ever 
suffer it to be cheap and apathized? 
Thanks again that you have confided to 
me tidings of your companions. Ber- 
lin shall be to me henceforth a noble 
and cordial city. And the invitation 
you send me to visit it gives me new 
rights in Europe. 

I am a bad traveller, and, every year, 
am a little faster tied to my own nook 
and cell, by tasks unperformed, and by 
solitary habits, and, especially as re- 
gards Germany, by a despair of talking 
in a language which I can only read, 
and not pronounce, and much less 
speak. 

But your challenge makes a kind of 
daily possibility to my dream. I too 
could heartily wish to send you friends 
of mine who deserve to see you and to 
be seen of you. I gave a letter long 
since to Elizabeth Hoar, a dear friend 
of mine, and who should have been, had 
he lived, the wife of my brother Charles, 
but he died many years ago. She is 
now in Italy, or in Switzerland, and 
41 



EMEKSON-GEIMM 

the war may prevent her reaching Ber- 
lin. Should she come, you will find her 
a woman in whom much culture from 
books has not weakened the strength or 
the delicacy of her native sentiment* 
She shares my love for your mother's 
genius. There was lately also in Ger- 
many a friend of mine, whom I could 
dearly have wished you to see, Mrs. 
Caroline Tappan. These two would 
give you two styles of New England 
women, that might suggest to you, bet- 
ter than almost any others, the range 
of our scale. But I fear she is in Paris, 
and already perhaps meditating a return 
home, though I had written to her not 
to leave Germany without seeking to 
see you. She did not go to Berlin. 

I read your plays, and find them in- 
teresting, — which is to say much, for 
I lack, I believe, a true taste for that 
form, and wish always that it were a 
tale instead, which seems to me the form 
that is always in season; whilst the 
drama, though it was once the right 
form, and then was again right, yet 
seems to die out from time to time; 
and, in these days, to labor with much 
42 



EMERSON-GBIMM 

that is old convention, and is so much 
deduction of power. Certainly it re- 
quires great health and wealth of power 
to ventriloquize (shall I say?) through 
so many bodies; whilst, in the novel, 
only that need be said which we are 
inspired to say, and the reliefs and op- 
positions take care of themselves. But, 
in Germany, I can well see, the drama 
seems to cling about the intellectual 
heart, as if it were one of the "prime 
liete creature " that Dante speaks of, 
and could not be ignored. 

You must thank my young transla- 
tor, of whom you speak, for her labor 
of love, though the " glued book " you 
seem to have sent me never arrived. 
Neither did the Hungarian poems, 
Petofi's, which you praise. Herman 
Grimm's Obituary Notice of your mo- 
ther reached me from him, and was 
every way important. I mourned that 
I could not earlier have established my 
alliance with your circle, that I might 
have told her how much I and my 
friends owed her. Who had such mo- 
therwit ? such sallies ? such portraits ? 
such suppression of commonplace ? Con- 
43 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

tinue to befriend me, nor let my slow- 
ness to write, which I will not make 
worse by explanation^ chill your flow- 
ing generosity, which I love like sun- 
shine. If you will write me such an- 
other letter as you have written, perhaps 
all my ice will go, and I shall suddenly 
grow genial and affable. Ah ! how many 
secrets sleep in each, which only need 
invitation from the other to come forth 
to mutual benefit. 

With the highest respect and regard, 
Yours, R. Waldo Emerson. 



U 



VI 
GRIMM TO EMERSON 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

vi. grimm to emerson. 

Berlin, 21 Grabenstrassb, 
October 25, 1860. 
Verehrter Herr, — Hatte ich 
Ihnen so oft geschrieben als ich schrei- 
ben woUte, so wtirden Sie viel Briefe 
von mir haben. Zuerst als ich vor lan- 
ger als einem Jahre den Ihrigen empfing, 
wollte ich Ihnen daf lir danken, denn ich 
war stolz darauf, dass Sie an mich ge- 
dacht und mir geschrieben hatten. Ich 
unterliess es aber weil sich zuviel Dinge 
aufdrangten, von denen ich hatte reden 
miissen, und von denen doch wieder, 
wenn ich es thun wollte, zu reden un- 
moglich war. Die Krankheit meiner 
seligen Schwiegermutter nahm damals 
schon den gefahrlichen Character an, 
der das Ende herbeiftihrte. Dann trat 
der Tod ein, dann die darauf f olgende 
Abspannung meiner selbst, dann die 
Krankheit und der Tod meines Vaters, 
nach dem ich mich selbst kurz vorher 
mit Gisela von Arnim verheirathet 
hatte, vor der Sie nicht wussten, dass sie 
meine Frau werden wurde, und seit dem 
f olgte eins nach dem andern, das mich 
46 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

VI. GBIMM TO EMERSON. 

Berlin, October 25, 1860. 
Honored Sir, — Had I written you 
as often as I intended to do so, you 
would have many letters from me. 
Primarily, when more than a year ago 
I received yours, I wanted to thank you 
for it, for I was proud that you had 
thought of me and had written to me; 
but I omitted to do so because too many 
things seemed to crowd in, of which I 
would have had to speak, and of which, 
nevertheless, had I wanted to do so, it 
would have been impossible for me to 
speak. The illness of my departed 
mother-in-law showed even then its 
dangerous character, which brought 
about the end ; then her death followed ; 
then came my own physical collapse. 
After that, the illness and death of my 
father, coming soon after I had married 
Gisela von Arnim, of whom you did not 
know that she was to become my wife, 
and since then one prevention followed 

the other. All this made me so in- 

47 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

abhielt. Ich war so unfahig dadurch, 
Ihnen den Brief zu schicken den ich 
schreiben woUte, dass ich selbst mein 
Buch liber Michel Angelo ohne einen 
begleitenden Gruss an Sie absendete. 

Auch jetzt ist es eigentlich noch beim 
Alten, es ist als soUte ich nicht wieder 
zu der Ruhe kommen, nach der ich mich 
so sehr sehne ; denn mein Onkel Jakob 
krankelt seit dem Tode seines Bruders, 
und in alles, was ich denke und thue, 
spielt die Sorge um die Zukunft hin- 
ein, die unabanderlich bevorsteht. Im 
Angenblicke steht es besser mit ihm; 
er hat sich ein wenig von dem kalten 
Fieber erholt, an dem er den Sommer 
liber krank war. Doch ist kein Verlass 
auf diese Besserung, denn er ist alt, im 
77sten Jahre steht er, und selbst wenn 
er gesund und frisch ware, mtisste man 
auf den Verlust gefasst sein. 

So sind denn die letzten Jahre eine 
Ausnahmezeit fiir mich gewesen. Ich 
mochte Ihnen nur sagen, wie oft ich 
wahrend dem ihre Blicher aufgeschla- 
gen und trostende Beruhigung daraus 
geschopft habe. Sie schreiben, dass 
jeder der ihre Worte liest, denken muss, 
48 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

capable of sending you the letter which 
I wanted to write, that I even sent you 
my book about Michelangelo, without 
an accompanying greeting. 

Even now there is really no change 
for the better. It seems that I am 
not to attain the rest for which I am 
longing so greatly, for my Uncle Jacob 
is in indifferent health since the death 
of his brother, and into all that I think 
and do there enters care for the future 
which is facing me inexorably. At 
the moment he is better; he has con- 
valesced somewhat from the chills and 
fever from which he suffered during the 
summer, but there is no reliance to be 
placed upon this convalescence, for he 
is old. He is in his seventy-seventh 
year, and even if he were healthy and 
vigorous it would be necessary to be re- 
signed to his loss. 

Thus the last years have been an ex- 
ceptional period for me. I only wish 
to tell you how often during this time 
I have opened your books and how much 
comforting ease of mind I have drawn 
from them. You write so that every 
one reading your words must think that 
49 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

Sie hatten an ihn allein gedacht, — man 
empfindet zu stark die Liebe, die Sie 
zu alien Menschen hegen, — man meint, 
es sei unmoglich dass Sie nicht nur ein- 
zelne bevorzugte damit gemeint, und 
man zahlt sich diessen zu. Welch' ein 
Gltick f tir ein Land einen solchen Mann 
zu besitzen ! Wenn ich an America 
denke, denke ich an Sie, und America 
scheint mir so das erste Land der Erde. 
Sie wissen wohl, ich wurde das nicht 
sagen wenn es nicht in der That meine 
innerste Meinung ware. Der Gang der 
Dinge und Ereignisse erscheint mir wie 
der Rythmus eines schonen Gedichtes 
wenn ich ihre Worte lese, und das Ge- 
meinste lost sich auf in nothwendige 
Schonheit durch Ihre Beobachtung. 

Ich habe versucht mein Buch tiber 
Michel Angelo in Ihrem Sinne zu 
schreiben, jedes Blatt so, dass es die 
Probe hielte wenn ich es Ihnen vor- 
lase. Im August habe ich das Buch 
an Sie abgeschickt, und hoffe dass es 
an Ihre Addresse gelangte. Ich weiss 
wie unvollkommen es ist. Nehmen 
Sie den guten Willen f iir die That und 
wenn Sie einmal Zeit haben, lassen Sie 
50 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

you had thought of him alone. The 
love which you have for all mankind 
is felt so strongly that one thinks it 
impossible that you should not have 
thought of single preferred persons, 
among whom the reader counts himself. 
What a happiness for a country to pos- 
sess such a man! When I think of 
America I think of you, and America 
appears to me as the first country of the 
world. You well know I would not say 
this if it were not really my innermost 
conviction. When I read your words, 
the course of years and events appears 
to me like the rhythm of a beautiful 
poem, and even the most commonplace is 
dissolved into necessary beauty through 
your observation. 

I have endeavored to write my book 
about Michelangelo in this sense — 
every page, so that it would stand the 
test if X could read it aloud to you. I 
sent the book to you in August, and 
hope that it has reached your address. 
I know how imperfect it is, but please 
take the good will for the deed, and if 
you ever have time let me know what 
51 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

mich wissen was Sie daran zu tadeln 
finden. Ich mochte diese Bemerkun- 
gen ftir den zweiten Theil benutzen, 
mit dem ich gerade beschaftigt bin. 
Cornelius, dem ich es widmete, hat in 
diesen Tagen in Rom seine Tochter 
verloren. Er steht nun ganz allein im 
hohen Alter, es ist ein trauriges Schick- 
sal, verbittert noch durch die Vernach- 
lassigung, die er hier erf ahrt und durch 
seine Trauer um die Zustande in Rom, 
an denen er als Katholik tiefen An- 
theil nimmt. Ich fiir meine Person 
kann mich aber nur freuen, dass die 
grosse Romische Liige, an der Deutsch- 
land so lange zu leiden hatte, immer 
mehr in sich zusammenfallt. 

Leben Sie wohl. Meine Frau grtisst 
Sie tausendmal. WoUen Sie uns eine 
grosse Freude machen, so schicken Sie 
uns ein recht ahnliches Portrait von 
Sich. Ich habe einige erlangt, die 
mir jedoch nicht ahnlich scheinen. 

In Verehrung und Dankbarkeit 
Ihr Herman Grimm. 

(Gestern sind wir gerade ein Jahr 

verheirathet. ) 

62 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

you find to censure. I should like to 
utilize your remarks for a second vol- 
ume upon which I am now engaged. 
Cornelius, to whom I dedicated it, lost 
his daughter in Rome recently. He is 
now entirely alone at great age. It is 
a sad thought, embittered also by the 
neglect which he experiences here, and 
by his sorrow over the condition of af- 
fairs in Rome, which concern him as a 
Catholic very deeply. I personally can 
only rejoice however that the great Ro- 
man lie, from which Germany has had 
to suffer so long, is more and more col- 
lapsing in itself. 

Farewell. My wife greets you a 
thousand times. If you wish to make 
us happy, please send us a very good 
portrait of you. I have succeeded in 
getting some which no longer, however, 
seem to me to be good likenesses. 

With esteem and gratitude. 

Your Herman Grimm. 

(Yesterday we had been married just 
one year.) 



53 



VII 
EMERSON TO GKIMM 



EMERSON-GEIMM 

Vn. EMEKSON TO GRIMM. 

Concord, June 27, 1861. 
My dear Friend, — You will think 
there never was such prodigal sloth as 
mine. To have such friends within easy 
reach by the steamer's mails, and to 
postpone letters (to write which is its 
own reward), and, by postponing, to 
brave the chances of time and harm 
on either side, — looks foolhardy, in a 
world where decay is so industrious. 
You have behaved so nobly too, on your 
part, as to leave my sloth and irresolu- 
tion without excuse : for you have sent 
me such gentle reminders, in the shape 
of new benefits, that my debt grows 
from month to month. The Life of 
Michelangelo did not reach me until 
long after it was announced by your 
letter. I feared it was lost, and or- 
dered a' copy from Berlin. Your own 
book arrived at last, and, soon after- 
wards, the ordered copy, and there is 
now a third copy, in our Boston Athe- 
naeum; so that America can begin to 
read. The book is a treasure, — in the 
hero, the treatment, the frank criticism, 
57 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

the judicial opinions, and, — what I 
value most, — the interior convictions 
of the writer bravely imparted, though 
more seldom than I could wish, as in 
the first pages, or in the interpreta- 
tion of M. A.'s sentence or Raffaelle's 
diligence. The book has research, 
method, and daylight. I hate circular 
sentences, or echoing sentences, where 
the last half cunningly repeats the first 
half, — but you step from stone to stone, 
and advance ever. I first knew from 
your Essay the passages from Fran- 
cesco d' Ollanda, and now you tell me 
the Florentine Government will print 
the Buonarroti Papers. Mr. Cobden, the 
English Member of Parliament, was in 
Boston two years ago, and told me he 
had been shown by the Buonarroti fam- 
ily, in Florence, a considerable collec- 
tion of MSS. of Michelangelo. I hope, 
now that liberty has come, or is coming 
to Italy, there will be all the more zeal 
to print them. Michael is an old friend 
of mine. A noble, suffering soul ; poor, 
that others may be rich; indemnified 
only in his perception of beauty. And 
his solitude and his opulent genius 
58 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

strongly attract. I miss cheerfulness. 
He is tragic, like Dante; though the 
Erythraean Sibyl is beautiful. I re- 
member long ago what a charm I found 
in the figure of Justice, on Paul Ill's 
monument, in the Vatican, and wished 
the legend true that ascribed the design 
to Michael A. Yet he has put majesty, 
like sunshine, into St. Peter's. We 
must let him be as sad as he pleases. 
He is one of the indispensable men on 
whose credit the race goes. I believe 
I sympathize with all your admirations. 
Goethe and Michael A. deserve your 
fine speeches, and are not perilous, for 
a long time. One may absorb great 
amounts of these, with impunity; but 
we must watch the face of our proper 
Guardian, and if his eye dims a little, 
drop our trusted companions as profane. 
I have a fancy that talent, which is so 
imperative in the passing hour, is dele- 
terious to duration ; what a pity we can- 
not have genius without talent. Even 
in Goethe, the culture and varied, busy 
talent mar the simple grandeur of the 
impression, and he called himself a lay- 
man beside Beethoven. 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

Yet I do not the less esteem your 
present taste, which I respect as gener- 
ous and wholesome. Nay, I am very 
proud of my friend, and of his perform- 
ance. Pleases me well that you see so 
truly the penetrative virtue of well-born 
souls. Above themselves is the right 
by which they enter ad eundem into 
all spirits and societies of their own 
order. Like princes, they have sleep- 
ing titles, which perhaps they never 
assert, finding in the heyday of action 
relations enough close at hand, yet are 
these claims available at any hour, — 
claims, against which, conventions, dis- 
parities, nationality, fight in vain, for 
they transcend all bounds, as gravity 
grasps instantaneously all ponderable 
masses. 

Thanks evermore for these costly 
fruits you send me over the sea ! I have 
the brochure on Goethe in Italy and 
that on the portraits and statues of 
Goethe. I persuade myself that you 
speak English. I read German with 
some ease, and always better, yet I 
never shall speak it. But I please my- 
self, that, thanks to your better schol- 
60 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

arship, you and I shall, one of these 
days, have a long conversation in Eng- 
lish. We are cleaning up America in 
these days to give you a better recep- 
tion. You will have interested your- 
self to some extent, I am sure, in our 
perverse politics. What shall I say to 
you of them ? 'T is a mortification that 
because a nation had no enemy, it should 
become its own ; and, because it has an 
immense future, it should commit sui- 
cide ! Sometimes I think it a war of 
manners^ The Southern climate and 
slavery generate a marked style of man- 
ners . The people are haughty, self-pos- 
sessed, suave, and affect to despise North- 
ern manners as of the shop and compt- 
ing-room; whilst we find the planters 
picturesque, but frivolous and brutal. 
Northern labor encroaches on the plant- 
ers daily, diminishing their political 
power, whilst their haughty temper 
makes it impossible for them to play a 
second part. The day came when they 
saw that the Government, which their 
party had hitherto controlled, must now, 
through the irresistible census, pass 
out of their hands. They decided to 
61 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

secede. The outgoing administration 
let them have their own way, and when 
the new Government came in, the rebel- 
lion was too strong for any repression 
short of vast war ; and our Federal Gov- 
ernment has now 300,000 men in the 
field. To us, before yet a battle has 
been fought, it looks as if the dispar- 
ity was immense, and that we possess 
all advantages, — whatever may be the 
issue of the first collisions. If we may 
be trusted, the war will be short, — and 
yet the parties must long remain in false 
position, or can only come right by 
means of the universal repudiation of its 
leaders by the South. 

But I am running wide, and leaving 
that which belongs to you. Let me say 
that I rejoice in the union which allows 
me to address this letter to you, whilst 
I have my friend Gisela in my thoughts. 
To her, also, be this sheet inscribed; 
and let me entreat, meantime, that she, 
on the other hand, will not quite be- 
lieve that she writes to me by the hand 
of her husband, but will, out of her sin- 
gular goodness, use to me that frank- 
ness with which she already indulged 
62 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

me with autograph letters. My only- 
confidante in this relation is my daugh- 
ter Ellen, who reads Gisela's letters 
and yours to me, with entire devotion, 
and whose letter to your wife (sent 
through Rev. Mr. Longfellow) I hope 
you have long since received. Ellen 
has facility — and inclination to front 
and surmount the barriers of language 
and script. My little book, Conduct of 
Life, I tried in vain to send you by 
post. So I sent it by Mr. Burlingame, 
our Minister to Austria, who kindly 
promised me to forward it to you. But 
the Austrian Government has declined 
to receive him, and I know not how far 
he went, or what became of the poor lit- 
tle book. You asked for my photograph 
head, and I tried yesterday in Boston 
to procure you something ; but they were 
all too repulsive. Ellen had enclosed 
in her letter some scrap of an effigy. 
But I am told that I shall yet have a 
better to send. And so, with thanks 
and earnest good wishes to you and 
yours, I wait new tidings of you. 

R. W. Emerson. 
Herman Grimm. 

63 



vni 

EMERSON TO GRIMM 



EMERSON-GRIMM 



Vrn. EMERSON TO GRIMM. 

Concord, Massachusetts, 14 April, 1867. 

My dear Mr. Grimm, — Will you 
allow me the pleasure of introducing to 
you a young friend of mine, Mr. Wil- 
liam James, a student of medicine at 
Cambridge. He has lately returned 
from South America, whither he accom- 
panied Professor Agassiz in his scien- 
tific tour in Brazil. He goes now to 
Berlin, with a view to the further prose- 
cution of his studies. His father, Henry 
James, Esq., an old friend of mine, is 
a man of rare insight and of brilliant 
conversation, and I doubt not you will 
find the son the valued companion that 
we hold him. He asks me rather sud- 
denly for this letter, or I should make 
it the companion of one or two more that 
have long been due to yourself, and to 
my friend Gisela Arnim, to whom I 
pray you to present my affectionate 
salutations, with the promise to make 
to her soon a special acknowledgment 
of her letter, which, though addressed 
to my daughter, directly concerned me, 
67 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

and of her book, on which I have much 
to say. 

I remain your affectionate debtor, 
R. Waldo Emerson. 

Herman Grimm, Esq. 



68 



IX 

GKIMM TO EMERSON 



EMEESON-GKIMM 



ix. grimm to emebson. 

Berlin, Mathaeikirchstrasse 5, 

October 19, 1867. 

Verehrter Herr und Frexjnd, — 
Statt all der Brief e welche ich Ihnen, 
nun seit Jahren schon, in Gedanken 
geschrieben habe, ohne sie je auf's 
Papier zu bringen, sende ich nun durch 
Mr. Foote nur eine kurze Nachricht. 
Weshalb ich so oft schreiben woUte, 
brauche ich wohl nicht zu sagen. In 
all den schweren Stunden die ich in 
den letzten Jahren durchmachte : als 
die Mutter meiner Frau starb, als 
mein Onkel Jakob ihr f olgte, und mein 
Vater, und in letzten Sommer, vor kaum 
drei Monaten, meine Mutter, war es 
mein einziger Trost fast, die Gedanken 
die mich erftillten, zu Briefen an Sie 
zu gestalten, in denen ich aussprach 
was mir das Herz durchschnitt. 

Und dann wieder unterliess ich es 
niederzuschreiben was ich gedacht 
hatte, und mir war zu Muthe als 
wtissten Sie es trotzdem. 

Was hatte ich sonst zu schreiben? 
Dass ich Ihre Biicher immer wieder 
70 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

IX. GBIMM TO EMERSON. 

Berlik, October 19, 1867. 

Honored Sir and Friend, — In- 
stead of all the letters which I have for 
years written to you in my thoughts, 
without ever putting them to paper, I 
now send you brief news through Mr. 
Foote. Why I wanted to write so often 
I hardly need tell you. In all the heavy 
hours through which I have passed in 
the last years — when my wife's mother 
died, when my Uncle Jacob followed 
her, and my father, and last summer, 
hardly two months ago, my mother — 
it was almost my only comfort to for- 
mulate the thoughts which filled me 
into letters to you, in which I expressed 
that which was cutting my heart in 
twain. 

Then again however I omitted to 
write out what I had thought, but I 
had the feeling that you knew it never- 
theless. 

What else is there that I could write, 
— that I read your books again and 
71 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

lese ; — dass Ihre Brief e mich gltlck- 
lich machten, und mir nichts lieber 
war als von Ihnen erzahlt zu horen. 
Ich wusste Niemand zu nennen, denn 
ich kennen lernen mochte, ausser Ihnen. 
Scheute ich meiner Frau wegen die 
Seereise nicht, so ware ich langst ge- 
kommen. AUein sie wiirde die Fahrt 
hintiber nicht ertragen konnen. 

Ich sende Ihnen durch Mr. Foote 
eine Kunstzeitschrift welche ich in den 
letzten beiden Jahren beinahe ganz 
allein geschrieben habe und jetzt auf- 
gebe, weil mir die Zeit dazu fehlt. 
Ich sende Ihnen ferner, in der Hoff- 
nung Ihnen eine kleine Freude zu 
machen, einen der ersten Abdrucke 
eines eben fertig gewordenen Kupfer- 
stiches, nach dem von mir in diesem 
Journal besprochenen anonymen Kopf e, 
der sich in Besitz eines meiner Freunde 
in der Schweiz befindet, und den ein 
Kupferstecher, Friedrich Weber, durch 
mich veranlasst, gestochen hat. Das 
2te Blatt ist ein Portrait von Clemens 
Brentano, welches in seinen letzten 
Jahren ein Bruder meines Vaters, der 
als Maler in Cassel lebte, gezeichnet 
72 



EMERSON-GEIMM 

again, that your letters made me hap- 
py, and that I like nothing better than 
to hear talk about you ? I can mention 
no one whom I wish to know except 
yourself. If I did not dread the sea 
voyage on account of my wife, I should 
have come over long ago ; but she would 
not be able to bear the voyage over to 
you. 

I send you through Mr. Foote an art 
periodical which I write almost alone, 
for the last two years, and which I am 
giving up on account of want of time. 
Furthermore, I send you, in the hope 
of giving you a little pleasure, one of 
the first impressions of an engraving 
on copper which has just been finished, 
after the anonymous head which I had 
discussed in this periodical, which is in 
the possession of one of my friends in 
Switzerland, and which was engraved 
by a copper-plate engraver, Friedrich 
Weber, at my suggestion. The second 
sheet is a portrait of Clemens Brentano 
drawn, and etched in his last years by a 

brother of my father, who was an artist 
73 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

und radirt hat. Und drittens sendet 
meine Frau, mit vielen herzlichen 
Grtissen, ein Blatt ihrer Tochter, einen 
Stich nach dem ersten und letzten 
Gemalde eines jungen Malers namens 
Kachel, der kurz nach Vollendung 
desselben an der Schwindsucht starb, 
und dessen Vater, einen ausgezeichneten 
alten Mann, wir vor einigen Jahren 
in der Schweiz kennen lernten. 

Will Ihre Tochter uns eine rechte 
Freude machen, so sendet sie uns d age- 
gen ihr Portrait, und woUen Sie selbst 
das Ihrige dazu legen, so vervollstan- 
digen Sie unsere Sammlung Ihrer Por- 
traits, deren wie eine ganze Reihe nun 
besitzen, die wir oft ansehen, als batten 
wir Sie gekannt seit langen Zeiten. 

Mr. James ist hier angekoinmen und 
gefallt uns sehr. Morgen Abend wird 
er bei uns Joachim, den beriihmten Vio- 
linspieler kennen lernen, zugleich mei- 
nen besten Freund, und zugleich Den- 
jenigen, der Ihre Gedanken zuerst mit 
in Deutschland ihrem ganzen Gewicht 
nach kennen lernte. Joachim und ich 
lasen Ihre Werke zu einer Zeit in 
Deutschland, wo ausser uns Niemand 
74 



EMERSOK-GRIMM 

in Cassel; and in the third place my 
wife, with many cordial regards, sends 
a sheet of her daughter — a shepherd, 
after the first and last painting of a 
young artist by the name of Kachel, 
who died of consumption soon after its 
completion, and with whose father, a 
most excellent old man, we became ac- 
quainted a few years ago in Switzer- 
land. 

If your daughter wishes to give me 
great pleasure she will send us her por- 
trait, and if you will add your own, you 
will complete our collection of your por- 
traits, of which we have quite a num- 
ber, and which we often look at as though 
we had known you for a long time. 

Mr. James has arrived here, and we 
are greatly pleased with him. To-mor- 
row evening he will become acquainted 
at our house with Joachim, the cele- 
brated violinist, — at the same time my 
best friend, and also the man who was 
among the first in Germany to become 
acquainted with your thoughts in the 
fullness of their importance. Joachim 
and I read your works at the time in 
Germany when besides us perhaps no 
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EMERSON-GRIMM 

vielleicht sie kannte. Jetzt freilich 
kennen sie viele und lernen immer mehr 
sie kennen. 

Ich sandt Ihnen vor einigen Monaten 
die drei Bande eines Romanes, ^ in dem 
auch von America die Rede ist. Was 
werden Sie dazu gesagt haben? Ich 
denke manchmal daran, denn der Effect 
einer solchen Arbeit bleibt doch immer 
ein problematischer. 

Ich schliesse meinen Brief als hatte 
ich gestern geschrieben und schriebe 
morgen wieder. 

Mit den herzlichsten Grttssen, 
der Ihrige, 

Herman Grimm. 

^ " Uniiberwindliche Machte " {Unconquer- 
able Powers), a romance by Herman Grimm, 
newly issued, 1902. Containing passages of 
great force and beauty. 



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EMERSON-GRIMM 

one knew them. Now indeed many- 
know them, and more and more are be- 
coming acquainted with you. 

A few months ago I sent you the 
three volumes of a romance in which 
America is mentioned. What will you 
have said about it ? I think of it occa- 
sionally, for the effect of such a work 
must always remain very problematical. 

I conclude my letter as though I had 
written yesterday and expected to write 
again to-morrow. With most cordial 
regards, Yours, 

Herman Grimm. 



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EMERSON TO GRIMM 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

X. EMERSON TO GRIMM. 

Concord, April 17, 1868. 

My dear Mr. Grimm, — Professor 
W. W. Goodwin, who fills the chair of 
Greek Language and Literature, in Har- 
vard University, sails in a few days for 
Europe, with the intention to visit Ber- 
lin on his tour. He is an esteemed and 
accurate scholar, and though a native 
of this town, had his best teaching in 
Germany. I believe he has once met 
you, — many years ago. His present 
journey, I think, was first suggested by 
the delicate health of his wife, but I 
doubt not they are both in condition to 
use and enjoy the rest and the attrac- 
tions of the tour. He knows enough of 
German, as well as of Greek, to have 
some right to visit Berlin : and I hope 
that both of my friends may be so for- 
tunate as to see you, and to bring me 
new tidings of the health of my friend 
Gisela. 

With affectionate regard, 

R. W. Emerson. 



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XI 

EMERSON TO GRIMM 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

XI. EMERSON TO GRIMM. 

Concord, 5 January, 1871. 

My dear Friend, — Your enduring 
kindness encourages me to ask your 
interest in a young countryman of 
mine, Mr. William E. Silsbee, an alum- 
nus of our Cambridge, and now going 
to Berlin, to hear Law lectures. His 
parents are excellent persons here, — 
my friends, and they and I desire that 
he shall not be in Berlin without seeing 
Herman Grimm and — if happy stars 
conspire — my friend, Gisela von Ar- 
nim G. also. Meantime I send to you 
and to her perpetual thanks and bene- 
dictions. I duly received from you the 
brochure on Schleiermacher, and read 
with interest, though his was never one 
of my high names. For Goethe I think 
I have an always ascending regard. 
That book of Mtiller which you sent me, 
the Unterhaltungen, is a treasure which 
I have kept close by me, and only now 
have sent to a friend with advice to trans- 
late it. 

I give you joy, the new year, on 
these great days of Prussia. You will 
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EMERSON-GKIMM 

have seen that our people have taken 
your part from the first, and have a right 
to admire the immense exhibition of 
Prussian power. Of course, we are im- 
patient for peace, were it only to secure 
Prussia at this height of well-being. 
Yours faithfully, 

R. W. Emebsox. 



86 



L.ofC. 



xn 



EMERSON TO GRIMM 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

xii. emerson to grimm. 

Concord, Massachusetts, 
December 18, 1871. 

My dear Sir, — You have been my 
constant benefactor for many years, and 
relying on this native bounty of yours, 
I have charged my son Edward, who 
goes to Berlin to pursue his studies in 
Medicine, to pay his early respects to 
you, and to my friend, Gisela von Ar- 
nim Grimm, if, as I trust, she still 
remembers me, — and entreat your 
friendship and good advice in his new 
home. The boy has gone earlier to Ber- 
lin than I had expected, by a month, 
or this note should have reached you 
sooner. 

But let me use the opportunity to 
say, that, though I have such a wicked 
habit of not writing letters, the best 
books and pamphlets have come to me 
from your hands, and have been care- 
fully read by me with great advantage. 
The brochure on Schleiermacher was 
specially interesting, as I had read some 
volumes of Varnhagen v. Ense's Tage- 
bticher, and wondered at the contrast of 



EMERSON-GRIMM 

the freedom within doors and the sad 
politics without. Now that my son is 
near you, I shall hope to communicate 
with you some more knowledge and with 
security of transmission on my part. 
With affectionate regards, 

R. W. Emersox. 



90 



EUctrotyPed and Printed hy H. O. Houghtoft 6f Co, 
Cambridge, Mass., U.S. A. 



if. 



